Today is Sunday and as promised, the Jung family is getting ready to go to the beach. It’s still half to 6am and the couple is already busy.

Byunghee, in his khaki loose short and white tank, is pumping up the beach ball. His wife, Jooyeon, in her favourite yellow floral strapless dress with swimsuit underneath as exchange of undergarments, is preparing snacks and drinks. The kids are still soundly asleep.

As the clock turns 6.40am, the couple is ready with their mat, small legless reclining chair, a bag of spare clothes, a bag of toys, and a basket of snacks and drinks. Byunghee sits on the sofa, turning on the TV and browses between channels.

“Hwanhee! Hyerin!” Jooyeon’s voice echoes around the house. “Wake up! You still haven’t packed up your clothes!”

She opens the kids’ bedroom door and turns the light on.

Hwanhee shifts on his sleep, making faint noises while covering his closed eyes.

“Come on, handsome,” she gives her son a kiss on his left eye, “wake up~,” and she gives him another kiss on his right eye.

Hwanhee squirms in discomfort and rubs his eyelids.

“If you're not waking up,” Jooyeon attacks him with another kiss on his right cheek, “I can do this aaa~ll day,” and she gives him another kiss on his left cheek.

“Moo~m, stop…”

She doesn’t stop and gives his tiny lips a kiss. “I told you I can do this all day.”

“Okay, okay!” Hwanhee opens his eyes and shifts backward, avoiding his mother.

He sits up straight on the edge of his bed and stretches his body, while Jooyeon moves to her other kid.

“Hyerin, baby~ wake up. You couldn’t wait to get to the beach, right?”

As soon as she hears the word ‘beach’, her eyes open wide. Still in daze, she’s standing straight holding the rail. “Beach!” she squeals.

Jooyeon gives her young daughter a kiss on her cheek before lifting her up from her crib. She puts her on the floor.

She claps. “Alright, kids! Take up your bags! Hurry, hurry~”

 

After a while, Byunghee notices several excited footsteps on the stairs.

“Baby, take them to brush their teeth, please.” Jooyeon commands her husband as soon as their feet left the stairs.

Byunghee erects from the sofa and takes both his kids on his arms. “Let’s go~” and walks to the bathroom.

Wow… he IS that strong. Jooyeon mutters at the reality of his now gym-freak husband.

A banging sound from the TV is heard and snaps Jooyeon back to earth. I really have to stop thinking weird things about him. He’ll get cocky. She shakes her head couple times and rushes upstairs to tidy up her children’s bags.

 

“Ba~da~ ba~da~” the 2 kids can’t stop showing their excitement as the car reaches the parking lot.

“Babies, remember to wait until I put the sunblock cream on you, yes?” Jooyeon pulls up her sunglasses as she turns her face towards the backseat, looking straight at the passengers interchangeably

“Algeussemida, ippeun omma.” They shout altogether.

As his family was talking, Byunghee parks the car safe and sound. He turns off the engine, opens the door lock, and both he and Jooyeon get out from the car. She walks to the passenger doors and unties Hwanhee and Hyerin from their seats, while he walks to the trunk and unloads the mat, small legless reclining chair, toys, beach balls, and the basket of snacks and drinks, and closes the door. Byunghee manages to carry all those stuffs in his hands, leaving the reclining chair for Jooyeon to bring, and walks towards the beach.

“Kids, do not outrun your dad, okay?” The kids jump out from the car and runs to follow their father.

Jooyeon returns to the back of the car to get the reclining chair.

 

It is 8am. The sun is shining brightly with white clouds surrounding it. The beach is not too crowded for them to enjoy themselves. They reserve a nice umbrella to sit under, not too near the water.

Byunghee puts all his bringing onto the sand, and lets Jooyeon place the mat under the umbrella.

She gestures the kids to sit and she starts putting the sunblock lotion all over their body to prevent them of getting sunburn. Once she’s done, Hwanhee grabs the toy bag and beach balls and pulls Hyerin’s hand to run towards the sandy water.

“Don’t get too far!” Jooyeon’s yell is left unheard. She sighs, “Kids.”

Byunghee breathes in the sea air and exhales through his mouth loudly. “When was the last time we went to the beach?”

“Like, forever,” Jooyeon answers as she’s putting on the sunblock lotion on her long legs.

He takes off his sunglasses and pulls up his white tanktop, revealing his sculpted body with a little bit of hair. He shaved last night but the growth rate of his body hair is insane.

“Sit down!” she commands him.

“What? You're not stopping me from getting into the water with the kids, right?”

She clicks her tongue. “I know,” she pours out a lot of sunblock lotion onto her palm, “but you don’t wanna go home with sunburn, do you?”

He chuckles as he lets her puts the lotion on his back. He also puts the lotion onto his palms to put the lotion on his limbs and his chest and stomach (abs).

When they're done applying lotion, he gets up from the mat, but before he can even walk, he sits back down on the mat as he sees his wife taking off her dress in front of him.

Jooyeon, in her polkadot halter top and dark blue high-waist boy short looks back at her husband. “What?”

He sighs. “You're hot. Why can’t you wear this often at home?”

She sighs back. “I let you see me without my clothes on. Is that not enough?” she pauses before realizing his true meaning. “Are you saying that I should put my dress back on and let you walk around this beach with only pants on? That’s not fair! Besides, I’m not wearing like triangle bikini or micro bikini and put my s and butts for display.”

She puts her palms on her s. “I bought this halter top half size above mines so they're not gonna like fall out. And,” she stands on her knees with her back facing him, “I wear shorts. No cheeks and no stretch marks sho--”

He turns her around by her waist and cuts her words with a kiss.

She pushes his face off her. “I’ve told you, you can’t just kiss me when I’m talking!”

“You talk too much, baby,” he chuckles. “You need help for your back?”

She gives up and throws him a lopsided smile. “Yes, please.”

 

Jooyeon rests on the reclining chair slightly outside the umbrella to get the sunshine kiss her fair skin. The legless chair is reclined back enough for her to rest but straight enough for her to see her family.

Suddenly, there’s a hand handing her a red unopened can drink.

“Alone?” the owner of the hand greets her.

She turns her head to her side and peeks from her sunglasses. A foreigner sits on her side. A tall, good-looking one. He looks like he’s on his early to mid 20s, fair skinned with blond hair and a pair of green eyes. He wears a sleeveless loose shirt with dark brown shorts.

Jooyeon sits straight up on the sand. “Sorry?” she asks in English.

“I can speak Korean, don’t worry,” he giggles and drinks his beer. “So, will this cola have an owner before it gets warm?” he pats her elbow with the cold can.

She takes the can from his hand and wiping the invisible dirt on her elbow. “Whatever. Thanks.”

“So, you're alone?” he asks as he throws away the empty beer can.

She puts the red can on the mat. “As you can see I currently am now. Why?”

He turns his head and calls for his friends from the beach entrance.

“Excuse me?” Jooyeon stands from her place with her hand on her waist and the other pointing at other. “There are a lot of empty spots on this big beach. What are you doing here?”

The foreigner also stands up, surprisingly a lot taller than her or her husband. He stretches out his right hand to her, asking for a handshake. “What’s your name?”

She gives her hand out for the handshake. “Lee Jooyeon. But--“

“Hi, Jooyeon. I’m Mike, from the UK but I’m taking a year of my study here. You were asking what I’m doing here, yes? I saw from a far that you were alone, and I can’t let a young, very beautiful lady just sit here all by herself,” he gives the back of her hand a kiss. “You don’t mind a company here, do you?”

She pulls her hand from him. “I do, act--,“ he runs towards his friends, leaving her with an unfinished word.

What the hell?

This Mike guy returns with a couple of his male friends, one is an Asian guy and the other is a black guy. They all look at about the same age. The three of them sit on the mat and starts unloading whatever stuffs they are bringing.

“Excuse me? I didn’t say that you can sit here!” Jooyeon, confused and upset, is still standing with her hands on her hip.

“You didn’t have to. I knew.” Mike remarks.

“Thanks for letting us sit here, Jooyeon-ssi! I’m Greg, by the way,” said the black guy, smiling.

“Jooyeon-yangi~ You are very pretty, you know?” said the Asian guy, reaching his hand to touch her cheek.

“What the hell?!” Jooyeon shouts as she steps backward avoiding this Asian’s hand.

“Oy, Junho. Don’t scare her! We wanna be her friends, not her creepers.” the black guy pulls the hair out the Asian guy’s leg. With a yelp, he backs off.

“You guys are already creepers. Go away!”

 

Byunghee was building a sand castle with Hwanhee and Hyerin when he hears Jooyeon’s upset voice yelling.

“Isn’t that mom’s voice?” Hwanhee says to his dad while looking far towards his mom’s place.

“I know. You stay here with Hyerin, ok? I’ll go check on your mom.”

Byunghee walks closer to Jooyeon’s place and sees her pointing at the strangers sitting on their mat. He fastens his pace.

“Babe, what’s going on?” he holds Jooyeon’s waist.

“Who are you?” said the Asian guy, pointing his finger to Byunghee’s face.

Jooyeon smacks the Asian guy’s hand hard. “Don’t you dare pointing your ugly finger towards us, young man!”

The white guy stands up. “We came here friendly, miss! We just wanted to have a seat with you because you seem lonely!” he diverts his eyes to Byunghee, “and who the hell are you suddenly barged in to our problem?”

“Her husband.” Byunghee eyes turn dark and shoot anger towards the unwelcomed strangers in front of him.

“Hu-husband? We thought she was alone!” the black guy erects and kicks the white guy’s calf. “We’re sorry! We’re just gonna go now.” He pushes his friends down forcing them to tidy up their stuffs.

Jooyeon walks towards the Asian guy and pulls his ear up. “You're Korean, aren’t you?”

“Ow, ow! It hurts!” the younger gets up as he clings on to his ear desperately.

“Who taught you to be disrespectful towards people older than you? Who??” she hits the young’s cheeks lightly.

“Jesonghamnida, noonim. Jesonghamnida! I was wrong, jesonghamnida! Ow!” his ear getting red from getting pulled.

She lets go off his ear. “Don’t repeat the same mistake, young man.” She diverts her attention from the Korean guy to his 2 foreign friends. “You may not be locals, but you live here. Have some respect.”

“Jesonghamnida, noonim. Jesonghamnida, hyungnim.” The three young guys bow and quickly flee off the scene with huge embarrassment.

Jooyeon sighs as she rubs her temple. “God, I’m tired.”

Byunghee pulls her waist close to him. “God, you're hot!” and he pulls her in for a kiss.

She giggles in and gives in to his kiss.

She pulls her head off him just before he uses his tongue. “Not in public, handsome.”

He chuckles. “You're right.” He lets her go off his arm and puts a kiss on her cheek before he runs back to their children.

She sighs happily as she returns to her initial position on the legless reclining chair. She reaches for the cola can that is no longer cold. She opens the can and hears the soda hissing inside the can.

“Ahh~ peace, finally.”